_Oriolus caudacutus_, GMELIN, I, 1788, 394.—LATHAM, Ind. Orn. I,
1790, 186 (not _Fringilla caudacuta_, LATH.). _Fringilla
caudacuta_, WILSON, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 70, pl. xxxiv, f. 3.—AUD.
Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 281; V, 499, pl. cxlix. _Fringilla (Spiza)
caudacuta_, BON. Syn. 1828, 110. _Passerina caudacuta_, VIEILLOT.
_Ammodramus caudacutus_, SWAINSON, Birds, II, 1837, 289.—AUD.
Synopsis, 1839, 111.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 108, pl.
clxxiv.—BONAP. Conspectus, 1850, 482.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858,
453.—SAMUELS, 307. _Fringilla littoralis_, NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832,
504 (2d ed. 1840, 590). _Sharp-tailed Oriole_, PENNANT, Arctic
Zoöl. II, 261, New York.
SP. CHAR. Upper parts brownish-olivaceous. Head brownish, streaked
with black on the sides, and a broad central stripe of ashy. Back
blotched with darker; edges of interscapular feathers and inner
secondaries whitish, just exterior to a blackish suffusion. A broad
superciliary and maxillary stripe, meeting behind the ashy
ear-coverts, and a band across the upper breast, buff-yellow. The
sides of the throat with a brown stripe; the upper part of the breast
and the sides of the body streaked with black; rest of under parts
whitish. Edge of wing yellowish-white. Bill yellowish below; dusky
above. The female appears to have more buff on the breast than the
male. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.30.
HAB. Atlantic coast of the United States.
[Illustration: _Ammodromus caudacutus._]
The young is of a more yellowish tinge above and below; the streaks on
the back more conspicuous; the scapular feathers without the whitish
edging.
In autumnal and winter specimens the buff tints are much deeper than
in spring; the sides of the crown, as well as the dark markings on the
back, more intensified, and in greater contrast with the lighter ashy
and olive tints.
HABITS. The Sharp-tailed Finch is one of the most striking and
well-characterized of land-birds, and as peculiar to the sea-shore as
the _Tringæ_. In habits it very closely resembles the whole family of
Waders in many striking respects. Like them it feeds upon small
crustaceans and minute marine insects, keeping about the water’s edge,
walking upon the floating weeds and other substances raised by the
tide, preferring this mode of life to a more inland residence, and
only resorting to the uplands to feed upon the seeds of grasses and
sedges when their food fails them at the water’s edge.
Dr. Coues is of the opinion that this bird does not breed in the
neighborhood of Beaufort, N. C., and that it leaves for the North in
May, having a more northern habitat than _A. maritima_. He does not
coincide with those who detect a resemblance between the actions of
the _Ammodrami_ and of the Sandpipers. He thinks the manner in which
they climb the reeds, slide up and down, and hang from them in various
attitudes, is more like that of Nuthatches and Titmice. On the ground
they seem to him unmistakably sparrow-like.
This Sharp-tailed Finch is abundant along the coasts of Connecticut
and Rhode Island, and is also found in Massachusetts, though
sparingly, and only in a few congenial localities. In the marshes of
Charles River, near Boston, this species is occasionally common in the
breeding-season. In the summer of 1869, Mr. H. W. Henshaw found quite
a number of their nests. Mr. Maynard has also taken it among the
marshes of Ipswich, which is probably about its extreme northern
limit. It has not, so far as I am aware, been traced to Maine. In
these localities it probably raises two broods in a season, as it
appears there in May, and remains until into October. They are
eminently terrestrial, run on the ground like mice, are difficult to
flush, and can only be shot while on the wing. They lie close to the
ground, and conceal themselves in the grass.
They are also very numerous in the marshes in the neighborhood of New
York, and especially so in New Jersey, breeding along that coast to
Cape May. How much farther south than this they are found I cannot
state, but I did not meet with any at Cape Charles, where the
_maritimus_ was very abundant.
In the winter this species is found in large flocks along the shores
of South Carolina and Georgia. Mr. Audubon, however, did not find any
in Florida. In the marshes near Charleston they are found in immense
flocks, so much so that Audubon has known of forty being killed at a
single shot. They search in the sedgy marshes for their food when the
tide is out, and, on the approach of the returning waters, retreat to
the higher shores and to the rice embankments.
The flight of this species is quite different from that of any other
bird, and by it they may at once be recognized. In flying, they also
drop their tails very low.
Mr. Audubon states that during the winter the Sharp-tailed Finch is
furnished with an extra quantity of feathers on the rump, for which he
finds it difficult to account.
These birds are essentially maritime, are found only in the vicinity
of the sea, and always keep immediately about the water, except when
the inclemency of the weather drives them to the high grass of the
uplands for shelter. They walk and run, or remain feeding on the
floating weeds and other substances raised by the tide, with all the
ease and fearlessness with which they move on the land. They are
gregarious in the winter, and in the Southern marshes are found
feeding in companies. During the breeding-season they keep more in
pairs, and are found more isolated. At this time they are also shy,
and difficult to detect. Their usual call-note is only a single
_tweet_, and in the love-season their series of twitters Mr. Audubon
thinks hardly worthy to be called a song. They feed indiscriminately
on seeds, insects, small crustaceans, and various forms of refuse
matter floated or thrown up by the tides.
On the coast of New Jersey, where these birds are found in the
greatest abundance, they have at least two broods in a season. Their
nest is on the ground, in a small tussock of grass or sedges, but
little removed from the reach of the tide, and is placed in a
depression apparently excavated for the purpose. They are loosely made
of soft and slender grasses, arranged in a circular form. The nest is
large for the bird, spacious and deep, and is softly lined with finer
and similar materials.
Their eggs, five or six in number, are of a somewhat rounded oval
shape, having an average breadth of .59 of an inch, and vary in length
from .78 to .70. Their ground-color is a light green, occasionally a
dull white, with hardly a perceptible tinge of greenish, thickly
sprinkled equally over the entire egg, with fine rusty-brown dots.
These are of various sizes, but all fine. In a few the larger dots are
confluent in a ring around the larger end; in others, the finer dots
are so small as to be only distinguishable under a glass, concealing
the ground-color, and giving to the egg an almost uniform rusty color.
These eggs vary but little in shape, and are nearly equally rounded at
either end, though never entirely so.
Ammodromus maritimus, SWAINSON.